The Oscar-winning actress, 64, and her director husband, 65, met when he was helming 1985's White Nights. They were married 12 years later. And Wednesday, they're releasing their second film together, the drama Love Ranch.

One of the perks of being hitched to the filmmaker? Not having to audition.

"I didn't even have to read for it. I was very lucky," Mirren says with a laugh.

That's because, Hackford says, the film "was designed as an opportunity to work with my wife, just for her to say yes. She's turned me down on things."

Other parts weren't right for her, or the timing didn't work out. Not that either party was hurting for work. Mirren won an Academy Award for portraying Elizabeth II in 2006's The Queen and was named a Dame of the British Empire, and Hackford earned an Oscar nomination for 2004's Ray.

But when Love Ranch came along, Mirren loved the idea of playing a hard-hitting, no-nonsense Nevada madam who runs a tight ship in her brothel but can't quite manage her marriage to her volatile cheating husband (Joe Pesci). Hackford helped Mirren understand a woman who, she says, is absolutely nothing like her in demeanor or personality.

"Taylor had to push me further in that direction because my tendency is to be rather nauseatingly nice. So he told me to just be tough," she says with Hackford's arm around her.

Working together after more than two decades was vastly different from their first endeavor, the couple say.

"We'd just met, 25 years ago. We didn't know each other. Now we do — I would hope. Both of us have 25 years of work under our belts as well," Mirren says.

Did Hackford treat his wife differently from the other cast members? He looks sheepish as he answers in the affirmative.

"I admit and apologize for being a little tougher. You have a huge amount of pressure making a film. The person you're most intimate with, you can be a little more revealing of the pressure," he says.

"It's the person you know most and can be the most honest with. I apologize for this, especially because my wife is a fantastic leader on the set. She's killing it — she's killing every take."

They didn't take work home with them on location in New Mexico, other than casually chatting about a take or a specific scene.

"We discussed it minimally. We might have said, 'Oh, that went really well today.' No, we didn't dissect everything, not at all," Mirren says.

For Hackford, "that process of collaboration on the set is great. What I try to do is not take home my angst to put on her. Sometimes we had dinner at night together, sometimes we didn't. Sometimes I'd fall into bed and wake up before she does. She's already asleep and I'm up before she is."

Not true, Mirren interjects: "I was going into makeup. I was always up before you."

Retorts Hackford: "No, you were never up before me. I'm the early riser in the relationship. She likes to sleep. I love it when she has an early call and I can lie in bed and she has to get up. She hates it so much! We get up sometimes at the same time. I like to go to the set early."

At home in either London or Los Angeles, they have their little marital squabbles. "When Helen doesn't put tops back on bottles — how many times do I have to tell you? But who cares? We're alone," Hackford says with a smile. He has two adult children from an earlier marriage.

In their off time, they travel. On the agenda? China, where Hackford hopes to shoot a film, Africa and India.

"We have to schedule our lives in such a way. Helen goes in (to make a film), and she goes in for the count," Hackford says.

Do they try to balance schedules so one is home while the other is on set?

"It's luck of the draw," Mirren says.

But they make it work.

"This is the reality of our relationship. We spend a great deal of our time together separate. I always visit her (on set) when I can," Hackford says. "In the beginning of your life, you're looking for perfection. It doesn't exist. There's always compromises.

"By the time we met each other, we realized that was the case. When it's right, you accept those things and realize it's better than anything else.

"Would I like to be with her all the time? Yeah. We get along really well. The fact is, we're separate so much."

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